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New Braunfels Herald Zeitung (Newspaper) - August 5, 2003, New Braunfels, Texas
New Braunfels
TUESDAY August-5, 2003
12 pages in 2 sections *
mmmjm pages in C seemHerald-/eitung
Vol. 152, No. 226
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Serving New Braunfels and Comal County since 1852
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50 centsCISD taxes likely to take a hike; budget up $3M
By Dylan Jimenez
Staff Writer
Comal Independent School District taxpayers could pay as much as 3 cents more per $100 of property valuation this year.
CISD trustees agreed Monday not to raise 2003 taxes above $1.83 per $100 of property valuation.
In 2001, the CISD tax rate was $1.85. In 2002, it dropped to $1.80.
Trustees will hold a public hearing on the tax rate, which will be
City angles for new business
By Dylan Jimenez
Staff Writer
New Braunfels economic development officials are not ready to announce anything about the deal, but the city is close to making an offer to entice a “very good company” to move into the city.
“We’re in the final stages to landing a very good company for the community,” said Michael Meek, presi-dent of Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce Inc.
Officials would not say how many jobs or how much taxable value the company would bring, or even what industry it’s a part of. But it would be a company new to the community that would build its own structure in the city, Meek said.
“We’ll work hundreds of deals like this, and sometimes we will be fortunate that everything is a fit and we’re able to land a company," Meek said. “If the city had to draw up what they needed, it would be hard to fictionalize this any better. We hope to put our best foot forward, because we see the benefits of this business being very lucrative for the city for many years to come."
He said the chamber had been working since last September on the deal. A city in Illinois is also bidding for the company’s new location, Meek said.
The city’s Infrastructure and Improvement Corporation Board of Directors will
See COMPANY/6A
approved by the board in September.
Trustees also took their first department-by-department look at the proposed 2003-04 budget.
The $72.8 million proposed budget is about $3 million more than last year’s budget.
Most of the increase reflects salary raises and hikes in the cost of insurance and fuel, said Abel Campos, assistant superintendent of business.
CISD will have to approve the final budget Aug. 25. If the budget is
not cut any more, the increase to $1.83 per $100 of valuation will be necessary to cover expenses.
Technology was a large part of the school board’s budget discussion.
District 5 Trustee Rose Cervin said she was concerned whether CISD students had enough technological learning tools to be effective in the modem world.
The technology budget jumped about $100,000, or 30 percent, this year.
Nancy Cobb, assistant superin
tendent for administration, said while most of the increase in expenditure had to do with maintenance, CISD would have to rethink the way it funds the technology department, if CISD wants to be serious about computer-integrated instruction.
Although the ratio of students to computers is high, Cobb said the school district should start to consider better maintenance and replacement of older computers.
Large increases in the proposed budget also were discussed for the
maintenance and operations department. The addition of 250,000 square feet of new school property helped create that problem, Guillermo Nieri, maintenance and operations department head .said. No actual figures were available Monday night.
The entire budget will be available next week for trustees and the general public to review before the public hearing set for 6 p.m. Aug. 25, at Smithson Valley High School.
MEEK
Negotiating officer wins award, respect
New Braunfels Police Office Chris Snyder was presented the Burney Boeck
Memorial police officer of the year award by Ann Boeck Monday night at the National Night Out Reception.
DAVID INGRAM/Heraid-Zwtuny
By Ron Maloney
Staff Writer
New Braunfels police officer Chris Snyder was a month out of crisis negotiation school May I when he was called to a family violence incident on Sable Circle.
Berm Mikkelson, 69, allegedly struck his wife and was barricaded inside the home with his son, when Snyder and other officers answered a call just before IO p.m.
What resulted for Snyder was a harsh lesson in negotiating that ended about 12 hours later, when Mikkelson allegedly set fire to his own home. Mikkelson survived and is in Comal County Jail awaiting trial.
Over that long night and morning, Snyder secured the release of the boy and
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Inside
Dear Abby.............4A
Classifieds..............4-6B
Comics...............2B
Crossword.............2B
Forum................SA
Sports................1B
Today.................2A
TV...................3B
www.herald-zeitung.com
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Public opinion of SOBs wanted
By Ron Maloney
Staff Writer
GARDEN RIDGE— District Attorney Dib Waldrip will seek suggestions Wednesday night from the public about how the county should regulate sexually oriented businesses.
The meeting is the latest in a series of presentations and public hearings Waldrip hopes will help officials draft a new order to regulate the businesses, which include adult bookstores, strip clubs and similar establishments.
A public hearing will take
See SOBS/6A
SURVEY SAYS...
Comal County is conducting a survey seeking input on its new SOB orders. To get a copy of the survey, log on to www.co.comal.tx.us and click on the “Sexually-Oriented Business Regulation Survey” button at the bottom of the page. Those who can only access the “text only” web page should click on the “County News and Special Information” link.
Those without Internet access should call 620-5569 to receive a survey by fax or mail.
Marching into a new year
NBHS band sweats it out during first practice of the school year
By Dylan Jimenez Staff Writer
DAVID INGRAM/HeralC-ZfXtung
(Above) New Braunfels High School junior Kelsey Crandall plays the chimes Monday in the band hall at the school. (Top right) Trumpet players Kyle Anderson, left, Aaron Antis and Michael Gallion practice playing their trumpets. The first day of practice for the 270-member Unicom Band began with outside marching drills and moved inside as temperatures increased.
Freshmen band members at New Braunfels High School are getting a crash course in Texas heat. Fortunately, their older bandmates are there to help and encourage them.
After two months of vacation, band members hit the parking lot behind NBHS at 7 a.m. Monday for the first day of summer band camp.
Throughout the week, 270 band members will spend three hours learning or reviewing the basics of marching, two hours working in sections and three more hours practicing music together.
“You get used to it, but the freshmen are taking it pretty hard,” Aaron Antis, senior trumpet section leader said.
He and other section leaders were up as early as 5:30 a.m. Monday. Their job is to help bring along less-experienced students through a combination of encouragement and correction, Band Director Beth Bronk said.
Experience they have comes in handy when trying to arrange hundreds of band members to perform a drill, especially since about one-third of them are freshmen.
Students who wanted to join the band just had to audition in the spring and show up for practice, Bronk said, so a number of inexperienced youngsters join the program.
“It’s up to us to teach them,” Bronk said.
Eight band directors, including five from New Braunfels middle schools, help during camp.
For the students, instructors provide a grid laid out in dots on the blacktop. The grid helps keep the band members in line until they get used to playing while marching in straight lines, Bronk said.
Bronk said teaching the students to march is easy and so is teaching them to play. Teaching them to play and march at the same time is difficult, even for more experienced kids.
“They’re rusty," Bronk said. “We start with stretching, because marching is physically demanding. On the first few days of summer camp they will be sore just from stretching.”
After a few days of fundamentals, band members start to learn drills they will perform for the first game. Every
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